Bombs Jolt Iraq on Anniversary Of 2003 Invasion

Baghdad residents gather Tuesday at the site of a bombing, one several Iraqi officials said was part of a Sunni effort to oust the Shiite government.
Reuters

By

Sam Dagher and

Ali A. Nabhan

Updated March 19, 2013 7:32 p.m. ET

BAGHDAD—Dozens of Iraqis were killed or wounded in a barrage of car bombs that struck the Iraqi capital and surrounding areas on Tuesday, a decade after the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion of the country.

At least 53 Iraqis were killed and 177 wounded in the attacks, which involved at least 16 bombs in parked cars and a suicide car bombing, a Ministry of Interior official said.

The blasts, detonated mostly between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. local time, targeted predominantly Shiite zones and government forces, hitting food markets, residential neighborhoods and an early-morning gathering of day laborers, the official said.

The Iraq War, a Decade Later

Ahead of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, take a look back at the war through a selection of photos from 2003 to 2011.

Smoke rose in Baghdad March 20, 2003. Jerome Delay/Associated Press

More on Iraq Anniversary

The attacks coincided with an Arab League meeting that was under way inside the Green Zone—the seat of the Iraqi government and home to the British, U.S. and other embassies. The meeting, in the presence of Belgian, German and Swiss experts, was intended to discuss the formation of an Arab parliament.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Tuesday's bombings but they resembled previous attacks claimed by al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate, known as the Islamic State of Iraq. That group claimed responsibility on Sunday for a nearly 90-minute assault last week that targeted the Iraqi Ministry of Justice with car bombs and suicide bombers.

The coordinated nature of the attacks underscored renewed determination by Sunni insurgents, including those linked to al Qaeda, to exploit Iraq's heightened sectarian polarization to bring down the current Shiite-led central government, Iraqi officials and analysts said.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is a Shiite, issued a statement late on Tuesday blaming the bombings on unnamed regional states who want to reignite sectarian warfare in Iraq.

In the past, he had publicly accused predominantly Sunni states like Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey of funding and backing extremist Sunni groups in Iraq in a mirror of their strategy in neighboring Syria.

The Iraq War began 10 years ago on March 19, 2003. In this video, President George W. Bush makes his case for war.

March 19 marks the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War. In a speech to the Commons on March 18, 2003, Tony Blair made his case for the war.

Two senior Iraqi officials said the nearly $110 billion spent by both the Iraqi and U.S. governments since 2003 on training and equipping the country's military and security forces has largely been wasted due to government dysfunction and graft and infiltration plaguing the security forces.

"The situation is very dangerous," said Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq in an interview. "The problem today is we don't even trust the security institutions because they could carry out these bombings or facilitate them."

Tuesday's attacks highlighted U.S. concerns about the ability of Iraq's security forces to counter outbursts of sectarian violence, especially as instability encroaches from neighboring Syria.

U.S. counterterrorism officials say Iraq's ability to fight al Qaeda has diminished since U.S. troops left in 2011. The White House has directed the Central Intelligence Agency to step up support for elite Iraqi antiterrorism units in hopes of bolstering Iraqi capabilities, as Washington gives Baghdad economic and military aid that reached nearly $1.7 billion in 2012. About 220 U.S. military personnel also are in the country.

"Senseless violence such as this tears at the fabric of Iraqi unity," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

President Barack Obama didn't mention the attacks in his recognition of the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion. His short statement instead focused on the 1.5 million U.S. service members who fought there, the 4,500 who died and the 30,000 who were wounded.

ENLARGE

Iraqis examine damage to their home from a car bomb attack in Baghdad.
REUTERS

ENLARGE

Iraqi residents assessed damage on their home in Baghdad's Zaafaraniya neighborhood after an explosion nearby, one of at least 16 car bombs to go off across the Iraqi capital on Tuesday. The attacks on mostly Shiite targets came 10 years after the U.S.-led invasion
Reuters

Meanwhile, in addition to the car bombings, a suicide bomber detonated his charge at a military outpost in Iskandariyah, a town on the southern outskirts of Baghdad, killing two government soldiers and wounding 10, the Interior Ministry official said. The government imposed a curfew in parts of the Iskandariyah area afterward, Iraq's state television station al-Iraqiya reported.

Shortly after the first wave of morning attacks, more car bombs exploded in and around Baghdad, triggering panic among residents and measures like the closure of several bridges spanning the Tigris River.

One of them exploded in an area of restaurants and grocery stores that are located several feet away from one of the entrances of the Green Zone, killing at least two people, witnesses said. A large plume of black smoke billowed for about an hour from the scene of the blast.

Several stores were destroyed by the explosion, while the glass fronts of others were blown out or smashed. A fishmonger who identified himself as Jasem said one of his customers was slashed to death by shattered glass. "Things are headed for the worse," said a grocery store owner at the scene of the attack outside the Green Zone. "Ten years have gone by and another ten years will pass by and the situation won't improve."

On March 19, 2003, U.S. missiles and bunker-busting bombs dropped by air struck targets inside Iraq, paving the way for a ground invasion by U.S.-led forces the next day that eventually overthrew President Saddam Hussein's regime on April 9.

"The shock and awe" campaign promised by President George W. Bush at the time succeeded in putting a swift end to a brutal regime that lasted for more than three decades but what followed continues to roil Iraq till this day.

U.S. efforts to institute democratic rule produced a succession of historic elections and a new constitution but also triggered a vicious insurgency and sectarian war. While violence today is nowhere near the levels seen at the height of the war in 2006, most Iraqis are bracing themselves for more bloodletting.

The latest violence comes amid efforts by several Sunni groups, including Saddam loyalists, to bring down the Shiite-led government in Baghdad and undo the political process that was ushered in after the U.S.-led invasion. Before the invasion, the Iraqi state was dominated by Mr. Hussein's family and clan who belong to the country's Sunni minority.

The bombings "target institutions and innocent civilians to drag components of the Iraqi nation into sectarian strife and the return to civil war," Mr. Maliki said. "If it happens again this time it will demolish everything that was built."

But many politicians including members of Mr. Maliki's own Shiite coalition see his divisive and autocratic style as part of the problem.

Baqr Jabr al-Zubaidi, who served as interior and finance minister in previous governments and now heads a parliamentary faction allied with Mr. Maliki, said the premier's quest to concentrate all military and security powers in his hands has produced bloated, corrupt and inept forces.

"It's a catastrophe," Mr. Zubaidi said in an interview Tuesday.

Others say Mr. Maliki's hesitation in addressing the demands of Sunni protests in several provinces across the country that have now approached their third month have created ample opportunities for insurgents and extremist groups to reassert themselves.

And in a move that will further alienate Sunnis, Mr. Maliki ordered on Tuesday that provincial elections due across the country on April 20 be postponed for up to six months in two predominantly Sunni provinces Anbar and Nineveh after the assassination of several candidates there.

Later Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, who heads a political movement represented by several ministers in Mr. Maliki's government, issued a harsh statement assailing Mr. Maliki for his move and labeling him a "dictator" no different from Mr. Hussein.

"Staying in this government has become harmful and not useful at all in fact it's abetting sin and aggression," said Mr. Sadr in a statement.

Shortly afterward ministers from his movement announced that they would boycott cabinet meetings.

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